The generally agreed forecast: self-driving cars will come in many different flavors later rather than sooner.

In decades, consumers could see some cars that fully drive themselves with others that go part of the way with vehicles that have technology do the steering, braking and/or parking, Toyota Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Hilary Cain told a Consumer Federation of America roundtable.

“No one has any earthly idea what the future will bring,” the Toyota executive said.

Cain said the future of fully and partially self-driving cars is far away because of the need to improve the reliability and safety of the technology.

Then, there is the matter of cost.

A few years ago, the suite sensors for an experimental self-driving vehicle cost several times of the car, pointed out the Toyota executive.

She noted since the cost has gone down, but it is too prohibitive for a consumer.

With that reality, she said fully, or partially self-driving features are likely to be seen first in car-sharing services like Uber that can spread the financial burden.

“Ownership can be expensive,” said Uber Self-Driving Cars Public Policy Head Miriam Chaum.

Like the Toyota executive and a General Motors official, the Uber leader tried to assure the audience of consumer advocates safety is front of their corporate minds in developing the technologically complex vehicles.

She noted there are specially trained safety drivers in the self-driving cars Uber is testing on Pittsburgh roads.

Chaum stressed Uber has chosen streets with low speed limits for the tests.

"We’re under a microscope. There is a recognition (self-driving cars) have to be safer than human drivers,” said GM Lobbyist Andy York.

How much safer?

“1% safer should be enough. This is not a rational expectation. This is an emotional expectation. It’s not a question for us to answer. It’s society’s question to answer,” said Toyota’s Cain.

The current regulatory framework for traditional cars won’t work for self-driving vehicles, asserted

Center for Auto Safety Executive Director Jason Levine, professing technology and enforcement don’t always work at the same pace.

The debacle over the Boeing 737 Max could repeat itself with self-driving cars if the auto industry is allowed by regulators to rush them to market so they can recoup development costs quickly, warned Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety Past President Jackie Gillan.

She said proof of concept that the era of self-driving cars has arrived is when an auto executive puts her seven-year-old in one to go to first grade.

Gillian admitted she is already a fan of some part-of-the way self-driving features that are already available to consumers

She noted her husband was against automatic braking until they drove out of a showroom and the feature stopped them from hitting a pedestrian.

The long-time auto safety advocate gushed over a car her daughter bought that parks itself.